Posted on 11/03/2004 6:03:59 AM PST by Born Conservative
A Republican lawyer reports about 75 similar disputes. Most are quickly settled.
YATESVILLE - The judge of elections refused to budge until the nudge of a court order Tuesday directed her to give poll watcher Walter Smith a front row seat. It took more than six hours before Smith, a Republican from West Pittston, moved to a spot next to the voting booth in the heavily Democratic precinct.
"I had to fight to do my job," Smith said.
The judge of elections would not identify herself or comment.
The judge was identified as Bea Alaimo by Leonard Piazza, bureau of elections director, and attorney Bob Davison, organizer of Republican attorneys for the Bush/Cheney campaign.
Smith suspected the first-time use of poll watchers such as himself might have caused some confusion at polling places.
Davison said there were approximately 75 calls from poll watchers who had difficulty either getting into polling places or being allowed to observe.
Most problems were resolved out of court.
Attorney Murray Ufberg, who organized Democratic attorneys for the Kerry/Edwards campaign, did not return a call for comment.
The judge of elections at Smith's polling place refused to let him inside and would not give a reason why, Davison said.
After discussions were unsuccessful, Smith's case went before Judge Joseph Augello.
"It's ridiculous that it had to get to a situation like that," Smith said.
Smith took his seat in the front of the room at the borough's municipal building at about 1 p.m.. He had arrived at the polling place around 6:30 a.m.
"She wasn't going to allow me to sit anywhere in the front," Smith said. By law he is allowed to observe voters as they sign in. "When they announce their names, I have to be able to hear that."
Within earshot, Smith checks a roster of Republican voters. If the voter appears at the polls, the name is checked off the list. Three times during the day, party volunteers retrieve a list of voters who have not been checked off and contact them by phone to encourage them to vote, Smith said.
After the court order, the situation eased and Smith was offered doughnuts by other poll workers. He said there was nothing malicious about what happened.
"It's just that her rules said one thing. My rules said another."
Bump. (For when you surface.)
Notice they could still get away with problems until the GOP got through 6 hours later.
But that's NOT what the headline says!
"It's just that her rules said one thing. My rules said another."
Generously put by the offended party.
More likely, "It's just that her rules were backed with arrogance. My rules are backed up by the law."
In 2000 I was a Poll Watcher and prevented about 100 people from voting twice. This election I joined an all Democrat crew as the Republican Alternate Election Judge. I helped insure that the law was followed, although to be fair, this particular crew was pretty straight. It helped that Harris County, Texas has installed an electronic voting system that is very difficult to defraud. Fellow Freepers, GET INVOLVED and you can prevent fraud. For the 2008 election start TODAY organizing and volunteering. We gotta scrub the phantom voters, dead people, and felons off the voter rolls before 2006 nationwide.
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